Travel Channel series spotlights Bridgeport

By Amanda Cuda, Staff Writer

Published 11:37 pm, Sunday, November 22, 2009

Since it debuted in October of 2008, the Travel Channel series "Ghost Adventures" has taken viewers to roughly two dozen creepy locales. And Remington Arms in Bridgeport is definitely one of the eerier places they've visited, series executive producer Daniel Schwartz said.

"This one is right at the top," Schwartz said of the former factory on Barnum Avenue. "It definitely earned its keep in the pantheon of `Do not put me in that place.' "

In June, "Ghost Adventures," which puts a team of paranormal investigators at a different spooky spot each episode, taped an installment at Remington.

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The episode airs at 9 p.m. Friday, and, though Schwartz refrains from ranking the episodes, he said Remington was definitely intimidating.

That's saying something. "Ghost Adventures" has visited places as varied as the Poveglia Island in Venice, Italy, and Ohio Reformatory in

Mansfield, Ohio. At each place, paranormal investigators Zak Bagans, Nick Groff and Aaron Goodwin are "locked down" for a night and roam the premises, looking for evidence of the unknown. Though they all have different stories, the locations visited by the "Ghost" team have one thing in common: stories about spooky, unexplained activity.

Remington Arms definitely fit the bill. Once one of the largest ammunition factories in the world, the Barnum Avenue site was no stranger to tragedies. These include a 1942 explosion that killed seven people and injured 80 others. The buildings at the site have been closed for years, and they have become a popular hangout for the area's homeless, said James Myers, a Bridgeport police officer and paranormal investigator.

It's also been a hot spot for reports of odd activities, such as moving shadows and disembodied voices.

Schwartz said the stories of the unexplained, combined with the site's tragic history, made Remington a perfect "Ghost Adventures" locale.

"It kind of has the stench of an unhappy place," he said.

During the hourlong episode, Bagans and company interview local historical and paranormal experts, including Myers. They then spend the night at Remington, with some unsettling results. We won't spoil it here, but suffice it to say that there are plenty of things going bump in the night at Remington.

Myers, who investigates the unknown under the name 826 Paranormal, said it's unclear whether the strange happenings at Remington are the result of ghostly visits or human intruders. But even if Remington isn't haunted, it is spooky.

"It's an old building," Myers said. "It's a creepy building, and there are stories to go along with it."

The Remington Arms episode of "Ghost Adventures" airs Friday at 9 p.m. on the Travel Channel.